Creating A Good Image For Yourself
As long as I've been in the construction business, I have
seen some of the lousiest contractors make the most money, while some of
the best contractors, seem to struggle. It's not always about what you
know in the construction business, a lot of times it's more about who
you know or how people perceive you.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about, I actually knew a man who
was 20 years my senior and could hardly read or write, yet I was working
for him, and this is part of what inspired me to start my own company.
He always had work and he always had a lot of money on him384. I thought
he was an extremely successful building contractor and he was. It didn't
make any sense to me, I knew three times, what he knew about building
homes and yet I was working for him.
When I started my business, I figured that I would be making more money
than he did, simply because I knew more than him. That's not necessarily
the case, I wasn't a good salesman and he was. This man could sell ice
cubes to an Eskimo.
It's not always what you know in the construction business, it's who you
know and it's the people that you're going to meet that can make the
difference between whether you're going to be a successful contractor or
not.
I did learn something from this man eventually, but it took me about 15
years until it finally sank in. It's not how much you know about the
construction business that will make you a successful contractor, it's
the impression that others have of you or in other words the illusion
that you have created about yourself, that will make you a successful
contractor.